No Thanks - Edward Estlin Cummings (1935) - En quoi l'écriture de Cummings est-elle si différente de celle des poètes classiques, et quel message tente-t-il d'exprimer dans ce sonnet ?

Thèmes abordés

No Thanks, Edward Estlin Cummings, anglais, poésie, poème, sonnet, amour, désir, mort

Résumé du document

Edward Estlin Cummings is an American artist from the first half of the 20th century. His works include novels, essays, paintings, playwrights and no less than 2 900 poems. He is considered a modernist free-form poet, which means his poetry is not restricted by the classic rules of forms and rhythms. [...]
The text studied here is an abstract from the work "No Thanks", written in 1935.

Extraits

[...] The use of punctuation is also very rare, the poet only uses commas twice and one semi-comma, which are not even at the end of paragraphs or at the end of the poem, but in the middle of verses. The use of parentheses is important to note as even though punctuation is barely present, Cummings employs five times. Actually, if we take a deeper look at it, the equivalent of nine verses is between parentheses, which is more than half of the poem. It would then be interesting to see if there is a hidden message. [...]

[...] This event cannot be seen by celestial objects "which stars may not observe". The reference to stars is very interesting as the poem describes a moment full of fire, the limit between life and death is foggy, and from the outside it looks like an implosion or explosion, which is exactly what stars look like. However, compared to the actual luminary, an interaction between two human beings might seem little, futile and fragile. Roses, that are reachable elements, can be spectator of the scene, but the use of "wince" gives the impression that the roses might feel sorry for what they are witnessing, as if something was incomplete or sad. [...]

[...] Conclusion In a nutshell, Cummings is here depicting a very classic topic of poetry, pure love and desire, and presents it a whole different way. The form is very new to the genre, which helps the reader focus on what is really important: the content. The writing style, which gives the reader an impression of a blurry surrounding, actually helps to really feel the intensity of the moment described. [...]

[...] No Thanks - Edward Estlin Cummings (1935) - En quoi l'écriture de Cummings est-elle si différente de celle des poètes classiques, et quel message tente-t-il d'exprimer dans ce sonnet ? Introduction E E Cummings is an American artist from the first half of the 20th century. His works include novels, essays, paintings, playwrights and no less than poems. He is considered a modernist free-form poet, which means his poetry is not restricted by the classic rules of forms and rhythms. [...]

[...] It is almost as if the scene is too intense, it is too extreme to be completely and peacefully appreciated. Indeed, the portrait of the two lovers previously described reaches its limits, confronted with two elements that are both considered symbols of beauty, and however have different characteristics: stars and roses; this will be further developed just below. With the term "horrors", the speaker puts the accent on the fact that it is, in some way, impossible to be fully committed to one another without the slightest shadow of doubt or self-existence. [...]